Billionaire Ripple founder has given more than $11.8 million to Harris campaign
Fresh election data shows that with two weeks to go until the general election, the crypto industry mostly donated to Vice President Kamala Harris
Chris Larsen, the co-founder and chairman of Ripple, contributed nearly $9.9 million to Future Forward in September, in addition to more than $800,000 to the Harris Victory Fund, according to FEC data compiled by Breadcrumbs crypto market and blockchain analyst James Delmore and independently verified by CNBC.
Including Larsen's August contribution of $1 million worth of XRP tokens, the billionaire has given more than $11.8 million to PACs supporting the Harris campaign, making him one of the crypto industry's largest individual donors this cycle.
Larsen, who's backed candidates across the aisle the last few years, told CNBC in an interview that his comfort level with Harris comes from conversations he's had with people inside the campaign and what he's seen from the vice president since she replaced President Biden at the top of the ticket in July.
It helps that Harris is from the Bay Area.
"She knows people who have grown up in the innovation economy her whole life," Larsen previously told CNBC. "So I think she gets it at a fundamental level, in a way that I think the Biden folks were just not paying attention to, or maybe just didn't make the connection between empowering workers and making sure you have American champions dominating their industries."
Larsen's affection for the Democratic nominee isn't new. In February, he gave the maximum personal contribution of $6,600 to Harris (which would cover the primary and general election), about five months before she became the Democratic presidential nominee, FEC filings show. At the same time, he contributed $100,000 to the Harris Action Fund PAC.
Larsen, 64, has a net worth of $3.1 billion, according to Forbes, primarily from his ownership of XRP and involvement in Ripple, which provides blockchain technology for financial services companies.
He's part of an industry that's become suddenly prominent in political fundraising, though more heavily in support of Republicans. Nearly half of all the corporate money flowing into the election has come from the crypto industry, according to a recent report from the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen.
The Trump PAC has raised about $7.5 million crypto donations since early June.
Fairshake, which is one of the top spending PACs this year, is targeting close House races. The committee gave out nearly $29 million in September.
Of that sum, $20 million went to two affiliated PACs — $15 million to the Defend American Jobs PAC, a single-issue committee focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain policy that's favored Republicans, and $5 million to Protect Progress, which has only supported Democrats.
The remaining $8.8 million spent by Fairshake last month mostly went to House races in New York, Nevada and California, according to FEC data compiled by crypto market and blockchain analyst James Delmore and verified by CNBC.
Several of those races are considered toss-ups by the Cook Political Report. Among the recipients were Southern California Republicans David G. Valadao and Michael Garcia, who are in tight contests to keep their seats. They've received $1.3 million and $1 million, respectively.
For the 2024 cycle, political donations from or supporting the crypto industry reached around $190 million and so far, crypto groups have spent over $130 million of that cash in congressional races for this year's election, including the primaries.
This story originally appeared on: CNBC - Author:MacKenzie Sigalos
